1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer-implemented presentations systems and more particularly to an improved method and system for interacting with the content of a dynamic situation display slide during the slide-show presentation mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Making presentations and conducting meetings are important aspects of many occupations. Executives make presentations to directors, managers conduct meetings with staff, salespersons make presentations to potential customers, doctors conduct meetings with nurses, lawyers make presentations to juries, and so on. A great many professionals conduct and attend meetings and presentations regularly. Much effort therefore goes into creating and delivering effective presentations and conducting effective meetings.
With modern commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) presentation software, conventional computers provide effective platforms for creating and conducting presentations and meetings. Currently available COTS presentation software modules can make a personal computer into a customized presentation system for creating and delivering slide shows. Generally described, these COTS presentation systems provide a specially designed, user-friendly, pallet of tools to assist in the creation of presentation slides for subsequent display to an audience. The Microsoft Power-Point(copyright) (MSPP) presentation system, available from Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash., is used by more people throughout the world than are all other COTS presentation systems together. MSPP therefore represents the COTS presentation system of practical interest to users generally. The MSPP presentation system allows slides to be prepared in advance and subsequently presented in sequence to an audience, point-by-point and slide-by-slide, with color, animation, audio, and transition effects that enhance the presentation.
However, it is well known in the art that the MSPP presentation system provides no effective means for interacting with the content of a slide during the course of the presentation. Only two modes of operation are supported; an edit mode and a slide-show mode. A user may create and save a set of presentation slides (as a PPT file) with MSPP in the edit mode, and then subsequently may deliver the presentation by xe2x80x9cplayingxe2x80x9d the PPT file with MSPP in the slide-show mode. Although the MSPP slide-show mode includes a simple means for adding notes to a linked meeting log during the course of the actual slide show presentation, no means are provided to allow the user to interact with the content of slide presentation except by interrupting the slide-show mode and invoking the MSPP edit mode.
In the edit mode, MSPP displays an edit-mode control window on the monitor. The edit-mode control window is typically displayed on a portion of the monitor in front of the computer""s desktop display. The desktop display is therefore partially visible in the background area of the monitor. This conventional type of edit-mode display allows the user to move the control window on the display screen to access icons and control items in tool bars associated with the desktop display. Illustrative edit-mode control window functions include text functions such as font size and style, drawing functions such as lines and polygons, background functions such as color and texture, and layout functions such as free-text and bullet-point. The user may also select among four different editing modes: slide-view, outline-view, slide-sorter, and notes-view. Each editing mode corresponds to a different display of information within the viewing field of the edit-mode control window. In the slide-view edit mode, a fully formatted slide may be viewed and edited within the viewing field. In the outline-view edit mode, the content of the slide presentation may be displayed and edited in an outline layout within the viewing field. In the slide-sorter mode, the user may view and change the sequence of a plurality of slides, which are displayed in miniature. In the notes-view edit mode, the user may create and view speaker""s notes for each slide.
The MSPP slide-show mode is invoked to deliver the presentation. Each slide is presented to cover the entire viewing area (or a single large window) of the audience display device to avoid distracting the audience with desktop icons and control items of the edit-mode control window, which are therefore not displayed. The slide-show mode allows the user to simply step through the presentation, point-by-point and slide-by-slide, by signaling with a user interface device (UID) such as, for example, a mouse or a keyboard. Each mouse or key click advances the presentation to the next stage by updating the display on the audience display device to show another slide, but no provision for changing slide content is available. Acoustic, animation and transition effects can be embedded within the presentation, by means of multimedia object technology well-known in the art, to enliven the presentation as the speaker steps through the slides. Dynamic multimedia slide presentations can be presented using similar multimedia object technology to show pre-edited files, usually captured as video or animation files. A polished and professional slide presentation can be delivered in the MSPP slide-show mode, which does not afford any editing opportunities.
Manipulating the MSPP system in the edit mode during a presentation is cumbersome because the edit-mode control window includes a numerous small control objects and menu items. Even when considering only the simplest of slide images, interacting with slide content during the slide-show presentation is disruptive, obliging the user to toggle between the slide-show mode and the edit mode. Interacting with a complex animated or multimedia slide during a slide-show presentation is commonly considered to be infeasible because of the delays associated with the detailed revision of animation and multimedia data files.
However, there has long been a clearly-felt need for a system that permits quick unobtrusive revision of animated slides, such as dynamic situation display slides, during presentation. Dynamic situation display presentations are widely used to review the results of a sports contest or a military exercise with an audience that includes the participants. For example, using a simulation application such as the AnalystWorkstation, the details of a military exercise may be carefully recorded in a ReplayStep file containing graphical objects and data representing the second-by-second positions of men and weapons and their individual attributes as they are associated with the terrain, showing actual results of military tactics employed by the participants. Such a ReplayStep file may be used to direct the animation of a graphical image, which may be embedded as a multimedia object within a MSPP slide and presented to an audience including exercise participants. Such an audience may be expected to be active viewers, raising frequent questions about exercise details and proposing hypothetical xe2x80x9cwhat ifxe2x80x9d scenarios that the audience wishes to see displayed immediately for comparison with the recorded exercise. Effective education of the participants demands some simple and unobtrusive means for quickly revising and re-presenting an animation of the ReplayStep file in the slide to show the effects of proposed changes in the display of participant positions, additional terrain details, and the like. Because the desired dynamic position display changes are unknown before the presentation, there is no opportunity to edit the ReplayStep file in advance. The effective exploitation of spontaneous requests for revised scenarios requires an improved method and system for interacting with the content of a dynamic situation display slide during the course of the slide-show presentation. The associated unresolved problems and deficiencies are clearly felt in the art and are solved by this invention in the manner described below.
This invention solves the above-described problem by providing a Microsoft PowerPoint(copyright) (MSPP) xe2x80x9cplug-inxe2x80x9d that permits the user to control and edit an animated dynamic situation display during the slide-show presentation in MSPP without interrupting the MSPP slide-show mode to return to editing mode. This invention arises in part from the unexpectedly advantageous observation that an ActiveX Control may be embedded in the MSPP slide window to intercept user interface device (UID) events for use in operating a separate Dynamic Display application in a second window, which may temporarily overlap the slide show window without interrupting the slide show presentation. A dynamic situation display file containing graphical objects and data representing the step-by-step positions and attributes of all dynamic situation display elements is embedded in a Slide object linked to the second window. A Component Object Model (COM) Server object is instantiated to link the Slide object with a Plug-In object embedded in the MSPP slide to intercept UID events, which are transferred through the COM Server object to the Slide object. Upon accepting a UID event, the Slide object calls the methods of a Dynamic Display object to change the attributes of the objects and data in the dynamic situation display file, which are then used to create an animated display in the second window while overlapping the MSPP slide show window.
In one aspect, the invention is a system for presenting a slide display on a computer system having a user interface device (UID) for accepting user commands and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software for presenting a slide display on a computer-controlled display device in a first window with means for producing UID events responsive to user commands, wherein the system includes a Slide class for instantiating a Slide object encapsulating the slide display in a second window, an Plug-In class for instantiating a Plug-In object associated with the first window and the Slide object with means for accepting UID events, a COM Server class for instantiating a COM Server object associated with the Plug-In object and the Slide object, and a Dynamic Display class for instantiating a Dynamic Display object associated with the Slide object with means for revising the slide display in response to the UID events.
In another aspect, the invention is a machine-implemented method for presenting a slide display on a computer system having a user interface device (UID) for accepting user commands and commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software for presenting a slide display on a computer-controlled display device in a first window with means for producing UID events responsive to user commands, the method including the steps of instantiating a Slide object encapsulating the slide display in a second window, instantiating an Plug-In object associated with the first window and the Slide object, instantiating a COM Server object associated with the Plug-In object and the Slide object, instantiating a Dynamic Display object associated with the Slide object, the Dynamic Display object having methods for revising the slide display, accepting a UID event at the Plug-In object, and calling a method on the Dynamic Display object to revise the slide display in response to the UID event.
In an exemplary embodiment, the invention is a computer-program product for use in a computer system including a user interface device (UID) for accepting user commands and commercial-off-the-shelf(COTS) software for presenting a slide display on a computer-controlled display device in a first window having means for producing UID events responsive to user commands, the computer program product including a recording medium, means recorded on the recording medium for directing the computer system to instantiate a Slide object encapsulating the slide display in a second window, means recorded on the recording medium for directing the computer system to instantiate an Plug-In object associated with the first window and the Slide object, means recorded on the recording medium for directing the computer system to instantiate a COM Server object associated with the Plug-In object and the Slide object, means recorded on the recording medium for directing the computer system to instantiate a Dynamic Display object associated with the Slide object, means recorded on the recording medium for directing computer system to accept a UID event at the Plug-In object; and means recorded on the recording medium for directing the computer system to call Dynamic Display object methods to revise the slide display in response to the UID event.
The foregoing, together with other objects, features and advantages of this invention, can be better appreciated with reference to the following specification, claims and the accompanying drawing.